[REALM]

I have 19k miles on my ‘21 Passport, and tonight while pulling out of the hospital parking lot, the auto-stop kicked in as I waited to turn out onto the main road, then she wouldn’t start back up. Battery lights came on, she just went dead. Nothing but clicks at the restart attempts.

The reason it was a bad time and made it annoying, was:
1) It was dark at night
2) My son was having an allergic reaction, I forgot his epi pen, and had pulled into the ER parking lot on the way home. Gave him Benadryl as we have a few times which usually works, it worked, so we headed out, but still needed to get him home to settle down, and then boom, it cut out dead soon as I got to hospital exit.

My kids are now crying as my son thinks he’s dying, but I popped the hood, hooked up my GB40 battery pack, started the car back up, and drove home.

Idle stop is terrible for me personally. It doesn’t just leave you stranded in a parking lot, it can die on you anywhere, turning like I was, waiting at a red light (as it almost died last month but battery checked out OK), etc. Luckily I wasn’t at a red light this time which would have been even worse.

So… idlestopper has been ordered and I’ll be installing that… along with a new battery apparently.

 

[REALM]

I went with a Duralast in my wife’s car recently, but am going with a Napa Legend Premium for my Passport. I would get Costco Interstate due to price, but they’re all out of stock, and not super close to me. Autozone and Napa are just the best auto parts places near us. I hear good things about Walmart Everstarts, but it’s such a pain going to our Wal-Mart so I ruled it out for that reason.

 

[REALM]

The benefit of the idle stopper is it will die when parked somewhere, not in the middle of the intersection or at a red light. So correct, it won’t extend your battery life, but will ensure it dies when parked.